What would be PrivacyGuides’s stance and opinion on creating and maintaining the anti-biometric tracking guide? I came across the title term on the latest The Hated One YouTube video, which presents a stark reality of our future. I notice more and more content and reporting about facial recognition, gait recognition and other similar technologies that are already implemented in parts and are bound to increase in numbers.
From my brief research, there are very limited resources (that are proven to work) currently in existence to counter this surveillace and any scarce discussion that exists is exceedingly negative and hopeless. Is there value in committing research and creating the guide?
There are some well-discussed guides on the internet, but I’d question their validity. For example, recent Tutanota blog article (Facial recognition: How to protect yourself from surveillance | Tuta) - and not to pick on and critice them at all as they are a company I respect a lot and I am only using this article as the latest article I saw -still state that glasses, mask, bandana etc. can help defeat this surveillance.
So the issue to me, at the moment, seems quite binary. If we believe the worst case scenario in terms of what the technology is capable of, then neither masks nor bandanas nor some dubious face paint can stop this surveillance and we are too late to counter it. If these claims are overblown, how effective would any counter-measures be, in day-to-day life? None of us are going to paint our faces each morning and most of us would not want to walk around with bandanas.
To make matters worse, facial recognition is probably the most-known form of biometric surveillance but far from the only one - even if we cover our faces, who’s to say we won’t be identified by our gait, our style of movement, body type etc. Or even by something like Flock Safety cameras that can correlate vehicles to identity.
In the end, where does all of this actually leave us?
I think trying to mitigate and eliminating surveillance in public may as well be a moot cause. Even privacy conscious people, ethical hackers who believe in security and what would likely agree that there’s no expectation of privacy in public. And this includes if you’re posting your photos on social media as social media is a public internet space (for all intents and purposes).
There are of course some things you can do that the Tuta article you linked talks about but in public, what more can you personally do? Nothing beyond it.
Also, there’s no one single authority or certainty with which PG can evaluate how to go about what you’re asking for and think its beyond the scope of what PG offers or can offer.
I do understand your arguments and, in part, agree with what you are saying. Surveillance in public is beyond this forum and one group and it does feel that, in the end, the only thing we can do is to accept and move on.
However, whole body biometrics surveillance is coming and it’s only a matter of time before it will (for the sake of simplicity) be wide-spread. Accepting it just doesn’t feel right. Would there be no value in, at least, having a dedicated page/article or wiki entry to at least review and discuss it? Provide some advice, both tools-wise and activism-wise?
This community is growing and, frankly, is becoming the one-stop-shop for all privacy and security related recommendations. It’s certainly easy to send non-privacy people to this page and forum to get them familiar. Omitting such an important part of privacy-invasive practice is not beneficial - there are people that still don’t even know about facial recognition used in grocery shops.
If PrivacyGuides can’t provide a full-blown counter measures guide, would there be value in creating a dedicated page or wiki entry on the website (or even a full dedicated section under Threat Modeling) that discusses whole body biometric surveillance that currently exists and has been deployed in practice and to, at least, provide basic counter-measures or link to external sources (like the Tuta) guide for further reading?
In that case, yeah - a page or even a new tag when one creates a post with info on this topic could help spread awareness and encourage discussions for all to learn more.
I guess an equally hard part will be to define or explain what this is better (as this is a fairly new thing that even teach savvy people are unaware about).
Another video from The Hated One does offer some tips on avoiding being identified by whole body biometrics. The video is 3 years old and he doesn’t call it WBB but I’m pretty sure this is what he is talking about.
More shocking news that show the inevitable proliferation of this technology that we need to be aware of and, if we can, find some sort of means of fighting against?
IMO it is simple but not easy, and it definitely seems not acting in good faith if you do so.
You change how you walk and stand, according to your “identity“ at that very moment.
e.g.
Primary identity: You walk and stand normally
Secondary identity: You add something hard inside your right shoes to make you walk and stand more leaning towards your left.
Tertiary identity: Same as Secondary identity but applies to your left shoe
Quaternary identity: Pretend you had a stroke affected left side of your body, use a walking stick, lean to your right and contract your left arm at all times.
…… So on and so forth.
You will need to be consistent in terms of your dressing style and your walking style.